13 comments

Seriously...why do other teams develop young pitchers and the Yankees do not? This Joba situtaion is pathetic..put him in the damn rotation let him throw 200 innings and see what happens!! If he's 8-12 with a 4.80 ERA at the end of the year then demote him to the pen, the Yanks are going to win a lot of games anwyays...maybe I am just not smart enough to see what's going on but from here looks like management has just blown it big time with Joba...

[3] I'm with you 100%. Jeter summed up my feelings pretty well - thanks Jete! - but nonetheless it seems perverse to go to such lengths to prepare Chamberlain for a full season as a starter then abandon the idea so completely.

But if they're going to put him in the bullpen now it might be best to just leave well enough alone. I can't imagine it would do Joba any good to start yo-yoing back and forth again. They may have already screwed up his fragile noggin as it is.

I echo your sentiment, Hawk. Joba should be obligated by law to glean expert tutelage from Mo, especially on developing the cutter. It speaks for itself and may turn out to be the best move Girardi and Cash ever made.

This decision wasn't about Joba, it was about what will work best for the Yankees, as it should be. There is nothing wasted by the experts deciding that the better starting pitcher should have the fifth spot. Nor is there anything wasted by making sure a pitcher does not increase his innings count too much from year-to-year. The objective of the Joba rules was to keep him healthy, and it worked. Now for '10 he can be a force in the bullpen or re-enter the rotation if someone gets hurt. It could have been handled better, and I'm sure Girardi and Eiland learned from it and we will see the difference with Hughes if he sticks.

[4] I don't buy that for a second. They gave Chamberlain 15 mL starts, then 43 major league starts, now they're sending him to the pen for the whole season. With the way they treated Hughes last year, and Joba in 2008-09, there's no way he gets a start this season. So instead we'll see Mitre for at least 10 starts. Of course, Eppler is Cashman's top aide. The only reason he shouldn't have spoken is because it hurt Joba's trade value.

It's time to trade Joba. This organization doesn't want to develop him. They want him to be a reliever. That's an utter waste. From Halladay to a middle reliever - awesome.